Hello guys, I am James Earl Ardino from some part of Philippines. Actually, there is a reason why I join this site; and that reason is I love to know more about Greek languages because I have noticed from the time I was a kid some words we used are derived from Greek language according to dictionary and my teachers. By the way, is it true that Greek language is a dead language (or what we called language, which is not use in the present)? I got confused with this, but anyway I really glad to be part of this site. I wish I could learn more here regarding Greek language.

The Greek of the New Testament is indeed considered a "dead language" but,there are some on this site that are interested in speaking and writing Koine to better internalize the language, so in some respects it is presently being spoken. As a side note, I was watching the sci-fi series CAPRICA last night and discovered that the "Taurans" were speaking in Koine Greek, though using the Erasmian pronunciation which I found comical. (Erasmian without Erasmus) Of course it didn't bother me that they were also speaking English...there has to be some suspension of disbelief...right?

Modern Greek is of course a "living language" and presently spoken, but the concentration on this site is on Biblical Greek.

I've noticed that in Tagalog there are many Spanish words. Spanish also has words influenced by Greek; el systema, el programa and these interestingly take the masculine definite article even though they end in "a." What dialect do you speak?

Helma Dik of the University of Chicago posted this recently on the classics list.

i'm already ducking in anticipation, but ...

There's a youtube video that takes the entire segment to establish the 3sg m-p indicative (with a somewhat unfortunate example, ἀκούεται) and the website states that
"This method allows the student after two years of study to start reading and understanding easy ancient texts without using a dictionary."

TWO YEARS!!

Very nice, but many of us would like to start reading easy original texts after 6 months instead, or, the latest I've seen in any college curricula, after 3 semesters. (or as early as after 5 weeks, as the case may be in a summer program - is that easy? no of course it's not easy!). So while making people happy by teaching them things that are not particularly classical and using an extremely limited vocabulary familiar from, say, your first week of Spanish or French classes, this does not line up with most people's goals for learning ancient Greek: they want to read Plato, Sophocles, and Homer. Not learn how to obey 'sit down' and 'stand up' commands, or 'knock on the wall' commands. A bit of extra practice in drill will accomplish this in no time, should you feel it is in fact important.

All of this is not to say that active command is not important, but the belief that a full-on oral method is the only way to active command and that it is the best fit for Classics, is problematic to me. Have oral drills? Emphasize active mastery? Absolutely. Skip paradigms? Have students use English grammar with Greek or Latin words and respond, καλῶς? No thanks.

On Jul 11, 2012, at 10:03 AM, Stephen Hill wrote:

> Check out Christophe Rico's Polis Koine book (the English translation isn't
> out yet, but it's mostly in Greek anyway). It's written for beginners, but
> it also works well for people who already know the grammar but want to
> build fluency. (Full disclosure: I teach with Christophe's organization,
> Polis.) The website is http://www.polisjerusalem.org/.
>
> Randall Buth also has materials: http://www.biblicallanguagecenter.com/.
>
> Stephen Hill
>
> On Sun, Jul 8, 2012 at 11:36 PM, Sidney Kochman <sskochma@owu.edu> wrote:
>
>> Is this <https://www.eisenbrauns.com/ECOM/_3JM1FFTKN.HTM> the sort of
>> thing
>> you were looking for? I don't have any personal experience with it, but
>> it's all that came to mind when thinking about conversation ancient Greek.
>>
>> -Sidney
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 8, 2012 at 2:45 PM, Paul Baronowsky <paulb1@insightbb.com
>>> wrote:
>>
>>> On 7/8/2012 10:29 AM, Paul Anderson wrote:
>>>
>>>> I was wondering if there's an ancient Greek equivalent to Traupman's
>>>> Conversational Latin? I'd love to work on being more fluent with
>>>> Greek.
>>>>
>>>
>>> This is not what you asked for. However, if you are not already aware of
>>> sxole.com, you might be interested in what it offers. Certainly not a
>>> textbook, but a place where people can "converse" in ancient Greek - at
>> any
>>> level of proficiency. Homeric, Attic and Koine are all welcome; it seems
>>> that most "conversation" is in Koine. That site has many other
>> interesting
>>> resources for ancient Greek.
>>>
>>> The word "conversation" is in quotation marks, because, on this site, all
>>> is in writing. However, I do believe that some people converse orally via
>>> Skype.
>>>
>>> Paul Baronowsky
>>>
>>

Scott Lawson wrote:Welcome to B-Greek James.

The Greek of the New Testament is indeed considered a "dead language" but,there are some on this site that are interested in speaking and writing Koine to better internalize the language, so in some respects it is presently being spoken. As a side note, I was watching the sci-fi series CAPRICA last night and discovered that the "Taurans" were speaking in Koine Greek, though using the Erasmian pronunciation which I found comical. (Erasmian without Erasmus) Of course it didn't bother me that they were also speaking English...there has to be some suspension of disbelief...right?

Modern Greek is of course a "living language" and presently spoken, but the concentration on this site is on Biblical Greek.

I've noticed that in Tagalog there are many Spanish words. Spanish also has words influenced by Greek; el systema, el programa and these interestingly take the masculine definite article even though they end in "a." What dialect do you speak?

Cheers and welcome,

Scott

Edgar Krentz
Prof. Emeritus of NT
Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago

ed krentz wrote:Helma Dik of the University of Chicago posted this recently on the classics list.

i'm already ducking in anticipation, but ...

There's a youtube video that takes the entire segment to establish the 3sg m-p indicative (with a somewhat unfortunate example, ἀκούεται) and the website states that
"This method allows the student after two years of study to start reading and understanding easy ancient texts without using a dictionary."

TWO YEARS!!

Very nice, but many of us would like to start reading easy original texts after 6 months instead, or, the latest I've seen in any college curricula, after 3 semesters. (or as early as after 5 weeks, as the case may be in a summer program - is that easy? no of course it's not easy!). So while making people happy by teaching them things that are not particularly classical and using an extremely limited vocabulary familiar from, say, your first week of Spanish or French classes, this does not line up with most people's goals for learning ancient Greek: they want to read Plato, Sophocles, and Homer. Not learn how to obey 'sit down' and 'stand up' commands, or 'knock on the wall' commands. A bit of extra practice in drill will accomplish this in no time, should you feel it is in fact important.

All of this is not to say that active command is not important, but the belief that a full-on oral method is the only way to active command and that it is the best fit for Classics, is problematic to me. Have oral drills? Emphasize active mastery? Absolutely. Skip paradigms? Have students use English grammar with Greek or Latin words and respond, καλῶς? No thanks.

- - - - - snip snip - - -

AMEN and AMEN
And especially in the case of koine, where many students are at seminary, trying to fit a couple of years of Greek and Hebrew into a schedule which includes many other academic and pastoral courses - some of which take priority.
For a Jump Start, which does get students reading confidently within a week-or-so, try Dobson's "Learn New Testament GreeK". It's not too good for grammar beyond the first couple of semesters, but it does give students a taste for Greek, and the desire to go further, rather than scaring them off.